Mahabharata Reread: Kadru and Vinata

[Eric11235]

Vannakam,

In lieu of certain events I have taken it upon myself to reread the Mahabharata in closer detail to fully comprehend a generally dense text.

The first thing I want to mention is the foreshadowing of teh Kauravas and Pandavas in the Astika subparva of the Adi Parva.

Kadru and Vinata are granted boons, Kadru wishes to birth 1000 nagas, and Vinata wishes to birth 2 sons who are greater than all of Kadru's children. The offspring of Vinata is Garuda

The story continues with a bet about Uchaichaisrava and celestial horse, through trickery Kadru wins the bet and Vinata is made her slave. Eventually Garuda intervenes to save his mother.


I believe that while not necessarily contributing directly to the main Bharata storyline this is an integral part of the early subparvas because we get a thematically and structurally similar story to the primary conflict that will take up the rest of the work


I encourage discussion and thoughts on the matter

Namaste

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namast�

to fully comprehend a generally dense text.

I am impressed with your eagerness to accomplish this task...
For me and my reading of the mahābhārata it is the continued pursuit of study, pondering, re-reading, discussion and the like to understand the most subtle points� of this great work.

For me, to fully understand it requires comprehension on 3 levels:

• abhidhā or the conventional meaning i.e. the literal meaning
• lakṣaṇā or indirectly via sign, symbol, inference.
• vya�janā or the figurative expression more intuitively offered some may call implied indication , yet is on a higher level of meaning.

Perhaps these 3 will all blossom in me before I move on...

iti śivaṁ

1. deeper meanings within the mahābhārata : http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=6446